Dropping points in a season are inevitable, no matter how good a team may be. The same way we cannot live out a lifetime without dropping the balls [in the game of life, business or career], irrespective of how skilled, pious or strong we may be as a person.
The points dropped in draws are little slips we make on a regular basis; whilst the points dropped in losses are the major mistakes we make in our decisions, choices and actions.
It is important to reduce the number of our slips and errors rather than accumulate them, because a team that records more draws and losses than wins will eventually be relegated at the end of a season, the same way a life or career that accumulates slips and mistakes will eventually be relegated to the base level of nonentities; in other words, be tagged a failure.
That is why it is very important to be strategic, deliberate and consistent in the game of life – be it career, business, family, ministry et cetera. A team that learns from its setbacks – be it a draw or a loss – and adopts corrective measures to win in subsequent encounters is the team that will emerge successful at the end of the season. The same way an individual that is so disposed – who reflects, (re)learns, re-aims and re-fires – will record life or career success proportionate to his/her discipline and, of course, luck.
Talking about luck, the same way systems and officiating can help a team to win through favourable seeding or errors on the part of the officials, is the same way individuals enjoy luck by virtue of who they are or where they belong. Some favours are universal, but a good number of favours are strictly contextual, you enjoy them because of what you have made of yourself, who you have in your life/circles, or where you belong.
A Leicester winning the EPL may take another year in the hundreds. But Ngolo Kante won the championship with a better-placed team the next season. Luck and placement are 6 and 7, So you also have to be deliberate with who you are becoming, who you have in your life and where you belong.
It is true that fortune favours the brave, that is why the successful are usually the luckiest and they enjoy more favour than the strugglers. But luck is an unreliable horse to ride on the journey to success, either as a team or an individual. That is why you shouldn’t play your game banking on it. Rather, your energy should be deployed to drawing up a winning strategy, fine-tuning it and being deliberate in executing your game plan.
To your success!
Babatunde is the team lead at TRW Consult, a marketing communications agency with core offerings in contents, event marketing, cause marketing, brand promotion and reputation management.
